Capriccio for String Quartet

Here is the supposed 3rd movement of the string quartet I am writing for my comp class.

Thanks to Magna Carta's Texture piece for assisting me in exploring extended techniques.

Aside from comments would love good ideas of the best cues I could provide players - the reading didn't go so well mostly due to my cueing and a few barrings and I revised the score in lieu of this experience. Still I heard some of the things I wanted during the reading.

Link to audio - note it does not playback the taps on the body of instruments and the glisses are off when other instruments play with it.

REVISED SCORE - Rebarred, restemmed and did a few minor revisions.

Capriccio for String Quartet - no cues.mp3 - File Shared from Box.net - Free Online File Storage

Capriccio for String Quartet - no cues.pdf

A quick run-through for playability:

The cello chord on the first beat is impossible - one finger cannot cover all four strings at once like that (unless you meant for all the notes in that chord to be natural, in which case they would all be open strings).

The gliss. in the 2nd violin part is awkward - the strings become too far apart at about a 5th up from the open string to play fifths without a lot of effort.

The 1st violin chord after the triplet in bar 19 is awkward.

As for the opening cello chord - they are meant to be sharp and the cellist didn't have too much difficulty playing the chord in the reading last week. But I'll have to recheck it as you confirm what Adler says - this stop doesn't appear as a practical in his book. It is such a smear that they could have cheated. In fact Voce - would it be possible if the cellist got the stop just using a metal bar to get all four strings in first position down? Like the way guitarists do to get giant chords or what Joni Mitchel would do on her zither to get her chords?

The gliss - Thanks for the heads up - though this worked to my advantage I liked the sound - the violinist could not play the tritone at mf - more like ff but that was fine.

Quadruple stop bar 19 - Again thanks again - but the player got the quadruple stop - though again at a loud dynamic ... definitely wouldn't use it in a series of consecutive stops or require it to be played softer than mf considering your comment

Bumped up as I added the audio link

Bumping the thread for remembering it later, Chris! :)

A quick run-through for playability:

The cello chord on the first beat is impossible - one finger cannot cover all four strings at once like that (unless you meant for all the notes in that chord to be natural, in which case they would all be open strings).

The gliss. in the 2nd violin part is awkward - the strings become too far apart at about a 5th up from the open string to play fifths without a lot of effort.

The 1st violin chord after the triplet in bar 19 is awkward.

At the beginning for the cello isn't impossible or awkward... Sorry.

The stop at 19 is fine.

And I don't know about the gliss in the 2nd violin part cuz I don't know where you're talking about. But the Bartok has 5ths stopped very high... but you should already know that Voce.

At the beginning for the cello isn't impossible or awkward... Sorry.

The stop at 19 is fine.

And I don't know about the gliss in the 2nd violin part cuz I don't know where you're talking about. But the Bartok has 5ths stopped very high... but you should already know that Voce.

Forreals? Unless you roll it that seemed really...not cello-y to me. But whatevs.

(There are lots of pieces that have high 5ths. I'm saying it's harder to do, not impossible :S)

Forreals? Unless you roll it that seemed really...not cello-y to me. But whatevs.

(There are lots of pieces that have high 5ths. I'm saying it's harder to do, not impossible :S)

Rolling it is different than doing two and two. That's just standard quad stopping. Especially with one note.

Thanks guys!

I'm a cellist so I'm going to focus on the part for that instrument. One can roll a quadruple-stop (ie bar 1) fast enough that it gives the illusion of being a single chord. With the violin 2 and viola gliss in the first bar as well the ear will probably not hear the difference. Just a word about notation - it took me to the end of the piece to realise that the vertical sticks in the middle of certain glissandi meant to slide up a particular string and then start again on the next one. This seems like a simple but actually reasonably sound way of getting around the limited 'glissing range' of each individual string. It should just about be okay to do at the speeds you prescribe (there will be a barely perceptible break in the sound as the player repositions the hand each string up), but add a note at the head of the score to ensure players know what this notation means. There are some very well-thought-out textures in this piece, especially bars 51-60. Be aware, though, that the cello will dominate the end of bar 53 - the E and F are in the most powerful part of its range and can be tricky to keep down in volume, especially as the rest of the quartet are marked three p's in their quietest register.

As for the harmonics you notate as being 'at the resultant pitch': Natural harmonics are, in all the string music I've seen, notated as the note over which the player must touch the string with the left hand, not at the sounding pitch (although it may be shown in parenthesis). The true sounding pitch is often several miles up the overtone series, so it isn't really practical to notate it there and expect the player to know where to put their finger to produce it. Also, you may possibly not get the flautando desired in places like bar 58 - harmonics can sometimes only be produced with the bow in a specific place, which as often as not is closer to the bridge than the fingerboard.

The note to continue pizzicato at bar 24 seems rather unnecessary - string players will carry on pizz as long as the instruction is in force. You could put 'sempre pizz' at the start but your cellist will keep plucking until arco appears - honest!

The thumb symbol in the cello part of bar 61 is confusing - I think you mean the chord is to be plucked with the right-hand thumb, but the symbol you've used refers to the left hand fingering and would produce a very weird hand position. I've seen this symbol used to show which r.h. fingers to pluck with in the third movement of Britten's First Cello Suite, but this movement is entirely pizzicato, the symbols are below the stave as opposed to l.h. fingerings above, and Britten adds a note to the effect of what I've just said. The glissando in bar 63 is also problematic - the only way to play it is to start very high up on the third and fourth strings, which will a) be difficult to find and b) not sound good at the top. If you changed the top note of the second chord up to a D it would be much more practical.

Other than that, everything is pretty playable, if a little difficult, and it seems to be a well-constructed piece of work with good variety of texture and material to keep the listener's interest. Carl Stalling wrote music for Warner Bros. cartoons, didn't he?

Siwi -

Thank you very much. Your suggestions are great. I adjusted the gliss later in the piece to a d and a# and it sounds much better. Thanks to Voce and YC again for pointing out the difficulty of this.

Also thanks for the correction of msr 61 - I meant a snap pizz. As a keyboard player I get that symbol mixed up with the lh pizz.

Thanks for the clarification on the harmonics - I have read Adler's description but in practice I get conflicting info. Do you or any other string players know of a good reference for string harmonics (and extended techniques). Charliep sent me a great article on Lachenmann's extended techniques.

Siwi - ah you assume I am far more intelligent than I am. The lines on the glisses are a rough approximation of timing the gliss up some or all the strings and leaving the string player to determine the cleanest switch to the next string or strings. Lachenmann uses this symbol. I am not a string player so I don't risk specifying to the player the best place to switch strings - rather offer a rough guide.

Yes Carl Stalling wrote the music for Warner Bros cartoons.

Magna -

Thanks so much! And I'll double check for unnecessary rests and other notation problems.

quite cool piece

i like it

dark-happy

I'd always recommend (as would most orchestration books) having a page at the front of the score in which you explain extended techniques and other unusual notations. The degree to which musicians have any knowledge of these techniques can vary astonishingly, even amongst professionals (although younger players will generally be more knowledgeable and open to using new techniques than the older generation). Personally, I'd keep your 'multiple-string-glissando' notation as it is with an explanatory note - often the best approach is what you've done: not to notate things precisely and let the player work out how best to do what you want.

As for information on string harmonics, I own Adler's orchestration book and can't say it's terribly helpful. There's a pretty good chart of the natural harmonics in a little pocket book called The Essential Dictionary of Orchestration, published by Alfred; and Boris Blatter's Instrumentation and Orchestration, I believe, also covers this and other extended techniques in more detail.

Bumped up as I posted a revised score. Note mp3 and score will differ slightly - made one revision around mm 40 - thinned out texture to highlight contrast between cello pizz and viola arco.

Be aware, though, that the cello will dominate the end of bar 53 - the E and F are in the most powerful part of its range and can be tricky to keep down in volume, especially as the rest of the quartet are marked three p's in their quietest register.

The glissando in bar 63 is also problematic - the only way to play it is to start very high up on the third and fourth strings, which will a) be difficult to find and b) not sound good at the top. If you changed the top note of the second chord up to a D it would be much more practical.

Re: 'Cello dominating

I don't think that's at all an issue, it'll depend on the ability of the performer but you can easily play that very softly. Perhaps even indicate it should be played on the III string if you're worried. But I mean... nothing else is playing so of course the 'cello will dominate...

Re: Glissando

It's true it would be more practical that way BUT I think it's still possible this way and you wouldn't have to go up the III and IV strings.

You could double stop over II and III, with a first finger on the C and a third on the F#, then slide down and just change to the III and IV strings once you reach the C#. I.e. Slide down on 1st and 2nd finger, then slide fingers over to III and IV string for the C# and G. It's not like it's that exposed, it'd work fine like that.

Okay.. other thoughts... The part at bar 15 where the 'cellist is tapping the instrument I think should be notated more simply. With a percussive effect like that the precise duration of the note is not going to be heard. So, for example, in the 'cello part.. just notate it as quavers on each beat. The viola part's fine. You don't have to do that but it just makes it easier to read and it's unnecessarily more difficult to read as it is.

The snap pizz in 67, yeah that's the wrong symbol to use unless you specify you're using it differently, a 'cellist would use their thumb to stop the bottom notes if they saw this. But also... I wouldn't use my thumb to pizz a three-note snap pizz, I'd just use three individual fingers. I think you should leave that because different performers have different ways of doing snap pizz that work for them. Using your thumb will give you a rolled chord.

Aside from technical things, I think it's a really interesting piece, but I don't know that the ending really works. I'd love to hear a live recording!

Thanks Camilla - actually the performers are supposed to tap the BODY of the instrument - not the string. That is why I used the symbol. The tone indication may be misleading but I foresaw no other choice - switching to a purely percussion notation would complicate matters further.

I am not entirely sure myself about that ending - I really wanted the cellist to gliss to an artificial harmonic but I was told that would be impractical.

As for the snap pizz symbol - I think I'll delete the symbol and just keep the instruction "snap pizz".

Chris,

It seems as though you have gotten a gold mine of feedback based on instrumentalists views of playability and notation, so I won't leave comments on that. Everyone's advice seems fine, hopefully you take it to heart. :)

As for the overall impression I got, it's hard to say. I loved your ideas in this, I just felt like it was more of a collage type movement based upon ideas. Don't get me wrong, if that's what you were going for then kudos. After all, you are a much better composer then myself.

Like I said, your ideas were wonderful! Maybe you could offer some insight as to the direction you were heading since my under-developed brain couldn't quite grasp where you were taking me? :D

I loved all the gliss and the knocking on the instruments, as well as the staccato running eighths, I just felt like you could have done more with them. Some spots did seem a little out of place, most notably at bar 27 with the bass line. You had all this delightful mayhem going on, it just kinda caught me off guard. Again, maybe further explanation would help me to understand.

It's good you got a performance of this piece (at least that's what I got from your intro), so now you can learn more from your work rather then just finishing the piece in a notation software.

Overall, this is definately something I would listen to again and again (actually, I already have lol). You continue to amaze me at your beautiful musical language and your progression as a composer. Keep me updated when you finish the entire work, I'd love to listen to it as a whole. :)

Vince

Thatguy -

Actually it is a good thing you find it more a collage - I was supposed to present at the start 5 different musical characters and then decide whether they integrate, remain separate these characters or choose another musical arch. I chose a partial integration.

The title of the composition assignment originally was "Shizophrenic Capriccio